In the very olden time there lived a semi-barbaric king,
whose ideas, though somewhat polished and sharpened
by the progressiveness of distant Latin neighbors, were
still large, florid, and untrammeled, as became the half of
him which was barbaric.
— "The Lady, or the Tiger?," Frank R. Stockton
Why does Stockton use an “olden time" setting instead
of a modern one?
It allows him to use big words and fancy language.
It is more likely that a king would be cruel in an old
setting
There can't be characters who are kings and
princesses today
A king from the past is more likely to make goods
decisions than a king today.

It is more likely that a king would be cruel in an old  setting

Explanation:

In the passage from "The Lady, or the Tiger?" the author Frank R. Stockton sets the story in "the olden time" because it is not to be expected to conceive such a barbaric king in modern times. Thus, the king's cruel and savagely brutal method of deciding at random whether the prince will be killed by a tiger or live to marry another woman rather than his daughter, is not likely to be found in contemporary times. As a result, the further in time, the atrocity of the king is more distant in regard.

dickinson punctuation and lines in her poems to establish a rhythm. each reader will naturally find themselves reading the poem in the same way. she uses the repeating question marks and exclamation points to convey the passion in her words. shelley uses punctuation to paint a picture in the reader's mind. for example, the ellipses after "stand in the dessert" evoke a silence, as it would feel in a deserted, old place.

caliban is prospero's slave in the shakespear's play "the tempest"